John 10:12

10:12 The hired hand, ¹  who is not a shepherd and does not own sheep, sees the wolf coming and abandons ²  the sheep and runs away. ³  So the wolf attacks ⁴  the sheep and scatters them.

John 15:6

15:6 If anyone does not remain ⁵  in me, he is thrown out like a branch, and dries up; and such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire, ⁶  and are burned up. ⁷ 

[10:12]  ¹ sn Jesus contrasts the behavior of the shepherd with that of the hired hand. This is a worker who is simply paid to do a job; he has no other interest in the sheep and is certainly not about to risk his life for them. When they are threatened, he simply runs away.

[10:12]  ² tn Grk “leaves.”

[10:12]  ³ tn Or “flees.”

[10:12]  ⁴ tn Or “seizes.” The more traditional rendering, “snatches,” has the idea of seizing something by force and carrying it off, which is certainly possible here. However, in the sequence in John 10:12, this action precedes the scattering of the flock of sheep, so “attacks” is preferable.

[15:6]  ⁵ tn Or “reside.”

[15:6]  ⁶ sn Such branches are gathered up and thrown into the fire. The author does not tell who it is who does the gathering and throwing into the fire. Although some claim that realized eschatology is so prevalent in the Fourth Gospel that no references to final eschatology appear at all, the fate of these branches seems to point to the opposite. The imagery is almost certainly that of eschatological judgment, and recalls some of the OT vine imagery which involves divine rejection and judgment of disobedient Israel (Ezek 15:4-6, 19:12).

[15:6]  ⁷ tn Grk “they gather them up and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.”